The present invention relates to a chemical catcher for collecting chemical materials during a manufacturing process of a semiconductor device. In particular, this apparatus collects the chemical materials remaining after the chemical materials are used in the manufacturing process of a semiconductor device. This prevents undesirable effects that may be caused by the remaining chemical materials.
Semiconductor devices are manufactured using various fabrication processes, such as single crystal producing processes, wafer treatment processes, and the like. In such processes, various chemical materials are used, e.g., in film diffusing, for depositing, for etching, etc. Such materials are generally applied using a chemical injection process. Accordingly, to perform the chemical injecting processes, a chemical injecting apparatus is required.
FIG. 1 is a schematic drawing of a conventional chemical injecting apparatus. As shown in Fig. 1, the chemical injecting apparatus for injecting a chemical onto a wafer 1 comprises an injection nozzle 3, an induction pipe 5 and an absorption, or suck-back, system 7. The injection nozzle 3 injects a predetermined chemical material onto the semiconductor wafer 1. The induction pipe 5 carries the predetermined chemical to the injection nozzle 3. The absorption, or suck-back, system 7 absorbs the remaining chemical from the injection nozzle 3 after the chemical injection process and processes the absorbed chemical material. Any remaining chemical that is not absorbed or sucked back by the absorption system 7 might detrimentally effect the semiconductor elements on the wafer 1.
In this apparatus, the absorption system 7 acts to absorb any excess amount of the predetermined chemical used in processing. This absorption is generally accomplished by using air pressure. Unfortunately the absorption process is not perfect, and some of the chemical often remains in the injection nozzle 3. Although the remaining chemical is identical to the chemical used in the manufacturing process, it may have a detrimental effect on the semiconductor elements being processed if it is allowed to drip on the wafer even after normal processing has been completed. If such dripping is allowed, wafers of poor quality may be produced and the yield of the semiconductor elements may be reduced.
Specifically, two main problems may occur. The absorption pressure of the absorption system 7 may be too low to prevent the chemical from dripping, or the chemical itself may have viscosity too low to properly allow the absorption system to function. In either case, these deficiencies may cause the chemical to remain in the injection nozzle 3 after wafer processing and to fall on the wafer 1. As noted above, this can degrade the quality of the wafer 1, and can lead to production losses and a reduction in productivity.